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Sunday, 16 September 2012

Painting Words

So I went to try this new technique I found on Pinterest to trace a printed word/name with a ball point pen on a desired object to give you an indented outline for painting. Well when I attempted to do this with my kids names on their bedroom doors I realised, to my dismay, it would not work. Firstly our panel doors with wood grain effect made it all too difficult to trace a straight line. Secondly, these doors are so hard that no pen or pencil would make an indent. My heart was set on painting these names directly on the doors... and since my free handing skills are good but not that good I had to think for a while of what I could do!

So I came up with an amazing solution!

Painted Name

I printed my kids names off Word in the desired size and font... but mirrored. Then I placed the printed paper face down on the door in the position I wanted it and rubbed along the letters as to act as a transfer. It worked... surprisingly, and faintly left the ink from the letters on the paper, on the doors.

I then painted over these transferred names with the desired colour and done!

Doors Before

Doors After

Now this may sound all too easy. Well once I figured out how to mirror the image with Word 2010, it was. Sadly with Word 2010, my trusty old Wordart trick didn't work to flip the text in a mirrored position, and my printer doesn't have the automatic option. So it took several different attempts of a few different techniques before I finally put a few ideas together and made it work!

You can flip Wordart by using the 3D Rotation tool found in the format shape option in the drop down menu, when you right click on your Wordart. But for some reason it does not let you make Wordart larger then 72 pts, which was not big enough for what I wanted to achieve.

So I found another technique that I will use for much more computer projects now and for those of you who have this same problem here is how to make text on Word "Mirrored":

And that was my Sunday afternoon project. I am very thrilled with how the doors turned out! I painted the names in the same colour as the hall way, which was Benjamin Moore's CC-570 (Night Train). My best tips for anyone who would like try painting text is to take your time, relax and enjoy!

Here is a quick note about another project I did this weekend. I found these great one time use, "peel & stick" stencils at Dollarama. So I put them to the test and added a little flare to my powder room. It worked pretty simple. They come on a roll so you just have to make sure it's level, smooth it on the wall as you unroll, paint and peel off. It did bleed a bit, but it was uniform... and I kind of liked the effect.

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About Me

I am a devoted wife and mother to two beautiful children. I am spiritual, creative, fun, enthusastic, energenic and crafty. I inspire to make things beautiful and I enjoy creating. It is of course hecktick being a mother of two, working and with every last bit of energy creating anything from scrapbooks, crochet projects, home decor, crafts, baking (well lets face it my list is endless). But life is what we make it! So Have Fun and... Get Creative!